Wrong Game (novel)

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Falsches Spiel ( False Colors ) is a novel by Georgette Heyer . It first appeared in the original in 1963, the German first edition by Paul Zsolnay Verlag in 1964 in a translation by Helga Wolff-Itzinger . Like most of Heyer's stories, this one takes place in the time of the Regency.

action

Kit Fancot returns to London from Vienna , where he is active in the diplomatic service , because he is concerned: He feels that Lord Evelyn Denville, his identical twin , is in danger. In fact, it turns out that Evelyn has been missing for days, even though an important appointment is pending: Evelyn has asked for the hand of the rich heiress Cressy Stavely. This marriage of convenience is necessary because he does not come into possession of his own property until he is married to pay off the enormous debts of his mother, the extremely lavish but charming Lady Denville. Cressy, on the other hand, is interested in getting married because her father has married a second time and there is constant friction with her stepmother, who is only slightly older than her.

Kit, the more sensible part of the twins, lets himself be persuaded by his easy-going mother against better knowledge to go to the meeting with Cressy's family instead of his brother, where he is introduced to Cressy's grandmother, Lady Stavely, who gives her consent to the marriage should give. The meeting with Lady Stavely and the entire family is successful, everyone is taken with the young lord. Meanwhile, Cressy is confused because she cannot explain his changed behavior.

Kit then leaves London immediately and goes to the family estate so that the twins' exchange is not discovered. However, Lady Stavely gets his mother, Lady Denville, to invite her and Cressy to stay there longer so that the two young people can get to know each other better. Cressy, who already wanted to give Evelyn a basket, soon realizes the truth, because the twins look almost the same outwardly, but are extremely different in character. You and Kit fall in love.

After a few days, Evelyn turns up at the estate: he had an accident with his Phaeton and lay unconscious for days in the Askham family's house, where he fell in love with the daughter of the house. Since it is a middle-class family, it is questionable whether his uncle, the asset manager, will give his consent to this marriage and release the property. The twins' mother, Lady Denville, solves the problem by getting her elderly, very corpulent and equally wealthy admirer, Sir Bonamy Ripple, to propose to her. He is ready to take on their enormous debts; it had turned out that he had bailed Lady Denville out of a mess a number of times. The game of confusion is revealed to Lady Stavely, and Kit manages to reconcile her with the new situation.

main characters

  • The Honorable Kit Fancot
  • Evelyn Fancot, Earl Denville
  • Cressy Stavely
  • Lady Amabel Denville
  • Lady Albinia Stavely
  • Sir Bonamy Ripple

expenditure

The book has appeared in German since 1964 in several publishers and in numerous editions. The pocket book alone, first published by Rowohlt in 1966, was printed in 173,000 copies.

literature

  • Mary Fahnestock-Thomas: Georgette Heyer. A Critical Retrospective . Prinny World Press, Saraland, Al. 2001, ISBN 978-0-9668005-3-1 , pp. 192-196 .